


Stay

by winnerstick



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Established Relationship, Exes, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 14:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7108648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winnerstick/pseuds/winnerstick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clary and Isabelle were so good together, until they suddenly weren't. Now Isabelle is picking up the things she left at Clary's, but the storm outside is too terrible for her to drive home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay

It was raining. The forecast had said that it would, but there was still something a little symbolic about the way that the rain was coming down so hard and so fast and making the evening so much grayer than it would have been on a clear night. Of course it would be raining. It was only appropriate that the day Isabelle came by to get her things it would be pouring down rain. Clary almost wanted to cancel. She wanted to call up Isabelle and tell her to come back another day when the universe wasn’t trying to be symbolic and poetic for them, but she didn’t. They wanted to get this over with. Isabelle wanted her box back.

But, still, Clary couldn’t help but stare at the rain as it came down, wondering if this was some way of the universe trying to pull them together again. Kissing in the rain, Notebook style. But that had never really been her strong suit. Isabelle had always been the one that looked out for those romantic moments and saw the beauty in the world. She had superimposed meaning onto nature left and right, and Clary had always admired her for it. Clary, on the other hand, was much more of a skeptic than Isabelle. She saw the beauty in the world and wanted to capture, but she never imbued meaning onto it; the world wasn’t pretty for her, it was just pretty on its own. She had been more of a realist than a romantic, and Isabelle had loved her for it.

Until she suddenly didn’t.

But it didn’t matter now. Because things were over between them and Isabelle was on her way to pick up the last of her things so that this chapter of their lives could officially be over. It was too late to text Isabelle and cancel and tell her that it just wasn’t worth it in this weather. It was too late to hear Isabelle say something about it being the perfect weather for this, because she imbued nature with meaning. So Clary didn’t move, didn’t touch her phone, and instead just waited for Isabelle to come.

Despite being prepared, the knock on her door still surprised her. Clary rose from her place on the couch and stopped in front of the door. She didn’t have to check the peephole. It would be Isabelle, looking just as beautiful as ever, if a little rained on from her walk into Clary’s apartment building. Clary took a deep breath, steadying herself, and pulled open the door. Her smile was probably more of a grimace.

“Hey, Clare,” Isabelle greeted, and if she was at all sad about this, she did a stellar job hiding it. 

Clary couldn’t help the rage that flared up at that. How could Isabelle be so okay with all of this, while Clary was barely hanging on at all? How could her makeup be so perfect and her hair styled beautifully despite the wetness that clung to it? How could her voice sound so steady as her eyes bored into Clary, effectively communicating pity rather than heartbreak? So it was just Clary that felt that way, then. It was just Clary who had to shoulder this pain. Isabelle was fine, just like she always was.

She took a step back, pressing her back against the wall and crossing her arms as Isabelle stepped inside. She kicked the door closed behind Isabelle and refused to meet her eyes, afraid that if she did, she’d say something she would regret. Again. Like she had so many countless times.

“I put what I could find of yours in that box,” she said, pointing at and keeping her eyes on the box. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Isabelle nod, then she kneeled at the box to rummage through what all was there. Clothes, mostly. Some product here and there. A bear Isabelle had won for Clary at a fair.

“This is yours, Clare. I gave it to you.” She held the bear out, but Clary refused to take it. Isabelle sighed and placed it on the couch, smoothing the fur on its head down almost lovingly.

“You’re welcome to go through the apartment and see if I forgot anything else.” Isabelle nodded again, standing up again and smoothing her skirt. She paused for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, then instead shook her head and turned around to inspect the apartment.

Clary positioned herself on the couch while she waited, as far away from the bear as she could be. The angle Isabelle put it at had it facing Clary’s spot on the couch, its black eyes staring at her unrelentingly. Clary stared back, twisting the hem of her shirt and listening to the rain, which seemed to be coming down harder. She didn’t look away until Isabelle came back, her hands empty, and then she pushed herself up to stand again. Her hands slipped into her pockets and the brief eye contact they had ended when Isabelle dropped her head to look at the ground and Clary turned to the window.

It was really coming down now. Clary could hardly see outside.

“I didn’t find anything else,” Isabelle said behind her as Clary moved to get a closer look out the window. “You were pretty thorough. I guess I’ll be going, then…”

“You can’t go out in this.”

Clary turned to find Isabelle hesitating, caught in her attempt to pick up the box, her body half bent over and her arms out. “What?” she asked.

“It’s storming pretty bad. You can’t drive home in this. You should… stay. Until it clears up.”

Isabelle looked as if she was considering this, until the power went out with a click and they were both enveloped in darkness.

 

“Why do you even have so many candles?”

Clary shrugged as she laid the candles out on the table and used the light from Isabelle’s phone to use her lighter on them. It wasn’t perfect, but once they got the five candles lit on the table, there was at least a dim glow and she could see Isabelle’s face.

“For situations like this, I guess,” she replied, leaning back into the couch. Isabelle took her own spot on the other side, moving the bear to her lap in the process. “And because they’re pretty.”

“You haven’t used them, though.”

“I’m using them now, aren’t I?” She didn’t mean for it to come out so snappish, but there it was. And Isabelle closed her mouth, so that was all that mattered, right?

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, and the tension between them was starting to suffocate Clary. Stupid storm forcing Isabelle to stay. If Isabelle had just come a little earlier, this would be so much easier. She would have her things and she would be on their way, and both of them would probably be much happier. Though Clary would still be left with a hole in her heart the shape of the person beside her on the couch.

“It was raining when we met,” Isabelle said, so softly that Clary almost didn’t hear her.

“Yeah, I know,” Clary replied stiffly.

“Your hair was dripping. Yet you still ran my phone out to me. You missed your train.”

Clary almost didn’t notice the phone that was left on the seat across from her, but she caught it just in time to run out of the train and catch Isabelle. The train had pulled away and Clary was going to be late for class as a result, but it had been worth it. Instead of trying to make it to the class, she and Isabelle had gone to get coffee. She hated the class, anyway.

“Can I tell you a secret?” Isabelle asked, and Clary shrugged her shoulders, keeping her focus on the candles. “I didn’t leave the phone on purpose, but I had thought about it. I wanted you to talk to me, but you looked so interested in your book and I didn’t want to interrupt you. When I left, I was afraid I’d never see you again.”

Clary furrowed her eyebrows. She hadn’t been paying attention to her book at all. It had taken her the entire ride just to read a sentence, because she had been so busy sneaking glances at Isabelle. Isabelle didn’t say it, but this would have been one of those moments where she imbued meaning. Fate clearly wanted them to get together, it was all meant to be, and all that. Because that, clearly, had done so much for them. Now here they were, three years later, sat on Clary’s couch unable to look at each other.

“You know when I first knew I was in love with you?”

“Isabelle, don’t— “ 

“When I told you that my application for that graduate program at NYU had been denied. I sent you that text and you were there in thirty minutes with terrible movies and pizza on the way. And you let me cry all night. That’s when I knew I was in love with you. That this was more than just…. Fun.”

Clary ran her fingers through her hair. She wasn’t completely sure when she had started tapping her leg, but now it seemed to be going just as rapidly as her heart was. She chewed on her lip, hard enough that she was sure she would soon draw blood, trying not to start the inevitable fight.

“Then why did you end things?” It didn’t sound like Clary’s voice. It sounded like someone else had spoken up for her, with just the slightest hint of a break in their voice as they got it out. This wasn’t Clary. This was some imposter, whose heart had been stomped on.

“We had been fighting nonstop, Clary,” Isabelle started, and the guilt dripped from each word. “You didn’t seem… happy. It seemed like you were just putting up with me, and that we were pulling apart. I felt it was better that we ended things before they got… messy. And explosive. Before we started to hate each other.”

“We weren’t pulling apart,” Clary insisted, trying not to stomp her foot for emphasis. As much as she wanted to behave like a petulant child, she knew this wouldn’t help matters. Isabelle had to stay until the storm cleared up a little, and it would be easier if they could talk like adults in the meantime. “God, Iz, are you serious? Yeah, we were arguing more, just like we do every time I get stressed out from finals. Just like we do every time your parents start being unfairly critical of you. It just happened to coincide!”

“That’s not what it felt like, Clare. It felt like it was serious. I didn’t want to be that couple anymore, okay? “

“So you decided to just be done.”

Isabelle let out a huff of breath and Clary finally turned to look at her. She was just barely illuminated by the glow of the candles and Clary was struck by just how beautiful she was. Long, dark hair, falling past her shoulders in thick curls which framed her heart-shaped face. Large, expressive eyes that showed just how much she was hurting right now. Had her eyes been so open this entire time? Had she looked this sad since she came by? Clary couldn’t remember. Maybe that was part of the problem.

“You know when I first realized I was in love with you?” Clary wouldn’t have seen Isabelle’s nearly imperceptible head shake if she hadn’t been looking straight at her, attuned to everything she was doing. “When you graduated. As you walked across the stage you just… had the most beautiful smile on your face.” Clary looked away from Isabelle, instead staring back down at the candles on her table. She felt Isabelle turn to look at her, though. “You moved the tassel and you looked out in the crowd for me and your family before you got off the stage. And you found me and you stopped for a second. You almost tripped. That was when I knew.”

They sat in silence for a long time. It wasn’t as tense as it had been before, but the air still felt thick. Clary’s chest burned with all of the things she wanted to say, but she couldn’t make herself voice them. Instead, they just sat there and listened to the rain, which seemed to have lessened somewhat. Isabelle stood up from the couch and walked to the window, pushing the curtain aside and examining the rain.

Clary jumped when the power turned back on, all at once, and suddenly the room was filled with white noise from the fan, the T.V., and the clicks of various electronics turning back on. Time had started up again, and everything was the same, and yet it all felt so different.  
Clary looked at Isabelle, who was looking right back at Clary.

“I guess I should probably go, then,” Isabelle said, dropping the curtain and walking to the box.

Clary grabbed her hand, not wanting to let her go, not yet, not when they had just started to talk. The power was back on, the magic was gone, but they were still left. Surely they could fix this.

“Stay,” she requested, adding just a hint of a question to it.

Isabelle hesitated, looking out the window, then back at Clary. She nodded.

**Author's Note:**

> hey so i'd LOVE some feedback because i'm probably going to submit this as my intro to fiction writing final?? feel free to leave it here or send it to me on tumblr @izziefray <3


End file.
